Hazel Grouse
Hazel Grouse is a character in Saiyuki Reload that started appearing at "Even a Worm Arc" and the main antagonist of Saiyuki Reload Gunlock that started appearing in Open Your Eyes. He was possessed by the demon Vuraharu. Personality At first glance Hazel seems to be refined and well-mannered, but rather he is egotistical and good at rubbing people the wrong way. He thinks himself an intellectual, and while he is sharp, because of his arrogance he lacks a great amount of knowledge outside of what he's already acquired. He's good at manipulating others, especially villagers that are looking for any kind of hope during the Minus Wave. But because of his ignorance of the world, Hazel is also easily manipulated. Besides everything, he also has strong physical capabilities though he rarely shows it. Hazel is a very single-minded individual. Due to this past experiences with youkai--simply called monsters where he comes from--he is very prejudice against them and has a hard time believing that youkai and humans ever once co-existed in Shangri La. He believes that he and Sanzo have very similar pasts, so he tries to connect with the monk. Just the opposite, because of his hate and distrust for youkai, he looks down his nose at Gojyo, Goku and Hakkai, not even addressing them by name. Because of this, the remaining members of the Ikkou, minus Sanzo, have a hard time tolerating him at all. He is personified as arrogant, believing that he is greater then most, especially Youkai, but through his interactions with the Sanzo Ikkou he learns otherwise. It is also revealed that despite the strict way he communicates with his closest ally, Gat, he has a very strong bond with the man. Appearance Hazel is a man of caucasian decent. He has a slim build, but is still fit. He also had baby-blue eyes and sliver hair. His hair is shoulder length with shorter bangs that are normally slicked back. He wears westernize black priest roads with a white cape-like collar. He has a black hat that looks somewhat western. He wears a pendant around his neck that he uses to store souls of fallen youkai. Background Hazel’s is a foreigner from the rich Western continent that lies across the ocean. When he was younger, his parents were killed by youkai and he was taken in by an exorcised/bishop of the local church, Bishop Filbert Grouse. Hazel expressed a great interest in the faith when he was little and under Bishop Grouse's care. Most of his classmates at this school thought that he was praying to God in relation to his deceased parents. Hazel actually has problems believing in a "God". Bishop Grouse tells him that he should believe in the God inside of him. ''"Everyone has God right here. So when you pray, Hazel... you oughta be pratin' to yourself. Face the God that lives inside you. It'll open your eyes to a great many things" - Bishop Filbert Grouse Meeting the Raven While Hazel was still young, his master brought a stranger from the East home; an foreigner with raven black hair and black robes. His master said that it was thanks to this wandering monk's help that he was able to exorcise/defeat the monster he'd been up against. His master described the monk as being very powerful and well trained in his art. So powerful infact, that he almost couldn't tell who was the monster between the two of them. The foreigner came to live with them for a time. In Hazel first real meeting with the monk, the monk's strange way of talking put the young Hazel off. When the foreigner introduced himself as "Ukoku"--"The crow cries"--Hazel responded with "''...so you ''are a raven''". After that, the foreigner decided that he'd go by Raven while traveling in this country. This started the two of them into a conversation about how ravens were unlucky and Hazel said that there was an Old wives' tale that crows and ravens are black because God painted them that way for breaking his commandments. Raven asks why it's a crime to break the commandments. Eventually Hazel just says, "...'cause that's just the way things've gotta be". To this, Raven smiles and says, "Who says?" After that, the foreigner just sort of crashed at their church; some days he would wonder about the town, but most of the time he just slept on the couch. Mean while, the town had been suffering from attacks and the crows seemed to be buzzing around the corpses. One day while Hazel was reading over his exorcist books, Raven's presents just seem to appear behind the child, spooking him. Raven asked why Hazel was reading these books and not going to ask Bishop Grouse to teach him personally? "...aren't you his successor , anyway?". Hazel admited that his master wouldn't teach him, that he didn't want Hazel to become an exorcist. When Raven made a "stupid-daddy" comment, Hazel got frustrated. He believes that Bishop Grouse had given him a better life than his real father could ever have and he wanted to show the bishop his gratitude. Hazel thought back to a time before the foreigner showed up when he'd been asking his master to teach him. His master had sighed and given Hazel a potted plant. Hazel didn't understand what the potted plaint had to do with exorcism. His master said "They may be monsters, but if you're gonna be dealin' with lives, you oughta start here." When Raven Heard the recount of the memory, he started laughing and asked Hazel if he'd been looking for a spell to make the flower grow. Hazel didn't deny it. Before Hazel's very eyes, Raven made the flower bloom, but then the flower continued to age and then died. Raven left the room stating, "To make something bloom...is to make it wither." During his stay there, the foreigner told Hazel of his country; that it was a place where monsters and humans lived together. Hazel found it hard to believe. One night, Bishop Grouse came back to the house bloody and beaten and collapsed at the entry. He simply said that he let the monster get away. Hazel felt completely powerless. He had an outburst with his master and smashed the dead potted plant before running out of the house. While out, Hazel ran into Raven who said things that questioned a person's worth. Hazel said that he wanted to become powerful and be needed and that was where his worth was. Raven chuckled and turned to address the tree around them, full of black birds. He claimed that all of them together were a single monster. The monsters move it for the attack and Raven gave Hazel that extra push. Hazel use an anti-monster spell on the beast, the first he's ever cast on his own. It's powerful, but not quite good enough. Raven chuckled again and used some strange power of his own. All the crows literally disappeared out of the night sky. Not long after that, Raven left. Before he did, he invited Hazel to come to Shangri La when he was older. Hazel responded with "I'm not curiou enough to travel all that way just to end up in a monster's den.". Raven smiled and said, "Oh, but you are. Didn't you know?" His Master's Death To visit Shangri-la. His dress is that of the church, but in actuality he follows in the footsteps of the man who was both father and ‘master’ to him, and exterminates monsters. When he was a child, his master was killed by monsters, so he now holds in his heart a persistent need for revenge and a sense of hatred. He heard the story of Shangri-la from Ukoku, whom he met in the past. Knowing that Shangri-la is now under the rule of youkai, he traveled there with his bodyguard Gat in order to send all youkai into extinction. Difference between Anime & Manga In the Manga Underconstruction Chapter 50]] In the Anime In the Reload: Gunlock anime, Hazel has a different origin. He would often kill youkai, and was eventually punished for it by being turned into one himself, which resulted in him killing the priest who raised him. He continued killing youkai but was eventually killed by Gato, under the orders of the Great Spirit. However, Gato feels sorry for Hazel, so he then chooses to revive him by sharing his own life energy, which also gives Hazel's mirror the power to revive dead humans with youkai souls (in the anime, the mirror appears to be able to hold an infinite number of souls). However, Hazel's memories become altered to make him believe that he was the one who killed and revived Gato instead . In the finale of the series, Hazel attempts to kill Sanzo and revive him, in order to get Sanzo to join him in wiping out all demons, but Goyjo, Hakkai and Goku intervene and Gato is fatally injured in the ensuing battle. Before dying, he reveals the truth to Hazel, resulting in Hazel regaining his own true memories. Hazel is then defeated in his youkai form by the Sanzo party, and feeling that he has wasted his life, then asks Sanzo to kill him. Sanzo complies with his request, though before shooting Hazel he comforts him somewhat by telling him that nobody wastes their life. Relationships 'Gat -' 'Bishop Filbert Grouse -' 'Ukoku Sanzo -' 'Genjo Sanzo -' Weapons and Abilities He has a special revival technique through which he can replace souls. He uses the souls of the youkai he’s defeated to revive those humans who died by youkai-inflicted wounds. In the manga, Vuraharu was possessing him and it is where he gained his ability, and making Hazel lost one portion of his childhood memories. He supplements this ability with an amulet, which is capable of storing souls. Through this, he can store souls of youkai defeated with less human causality, in case of times where human causality is greater than the number of enemy youkai. Trivia Gallery Goku043.jpg Goku044.jpg|Hazel and Genjo Sanzo Goku045.jpg Goku047.jpg|Gat and Hazel Hazel Reload 001.jpg Hazel Grouse 001.jpg Hazel Grouse 002.jpg Hazel Grouse 003.png Hazel Grouse 004.jpg Hazel Grouse 005.jpg Category:Characters